


It's Too Cold For You Here

by seralin



Category: The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue Series - Mackenzi Lee
Genre: Alternate Universe - Royalty, Everyone Needs A Hug, F/F, Fluff and Angst, I Will Go Down With This Ship, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, I'm Bad At Tagging, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Including the Author, Not Beta Read, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Slow Burn, everyone is a prince/princess, maybe idk i don't have it all planned out yet, most kingdom names came from a generator, she/they sim
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-19
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:48:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,906
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28168764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seralin/pseuds/seralin
Summary: Johanna is the princess of Eadeneia, who's trapped in an arranged marriage. She decides to leave, just for the day of the wedding, but on the way out, she's caught by a visiting princess, Simmaa.
Relationships: Henry "Monty" Montague/Percy Newton - Background, Johanna Hoffman & Felicity Montague, Simmaa "Sim" Aldajah & Johanna Hoffman & Felicity Montague, Simmaa "Sim" Aldajah/Johanna Hoffman
Comments: 4
Kudos: 5





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> First time posting a multi-chapter fic since my w*ttp*d phase in 8th grade lets see how this goes.

Johanna had known this was coming. She knew that they’d be marrying her off to some random prince sometime soon. But maybe… maybe she hoped they’d give her more time, wait until she was older. But of course, the very day she turned 18, it was announced that she was to be wed. 

The prince they had chosen for her wasn’t all that bad. She had already met him a few times, as he was from a kingdom that directly neighbored her own. She believed his name was Prince Henry Montague of Rogalla, but it had been a while. Didn’t he go by some nickname?

Anyway, he was fine. There weren’t any obvious red flags, but he was a bit… much. And he seemed to be into just about everyone except Johanna. Which was okay, it’s not like she was into him either. But people would talk if the princess’ husband was always making eyes at that Prince Percy of Dadour. 

So life married to him wouldn’t be terrible. She could put up with him and his eccentric nature. And if worst comes to worst, she could always get a divorce. Divorce was frowned upon in this kingdom, especially for royalty, but it’s not exactly like people looked up to Johanna as it were. 

They called Johanna things like ‘the stubborn princess’ in hushed whispers when they thought she couldn’t hear. And if she were being completely honest, she’d have to say it bothered her. She could handle it, but it still got to her sometimes. 

Johanna had done so much for her kingdom, an uncountable number of hours put into attempts at diplomacy and, when the king and queen were feeling particularly nice, research.

Those days were always her favorite. The royal scientists were some of the few people in the castle Johanna could tolerate, the only ones with the same constant curiosity and thirst for knowledge that she had always been ridiculed for growing up. 

But the point is, Johanna thought she had to put up with quite a lot. They were all things she could handle individually, but they just all added up.

And this marriage was the breaking point. She could handle it, but she sure as hell didn’t want to. And right now, the night before the wedding, tonight could possibly be the last chance she had to just get away from it all. 

Not permanently. Johanna honestly didn’t think she could survive out on her own. She had learned as much as she could about the world, but she was rarely ever allowed to actually leave the castle grounds. And when she was, it was just to visit some other kingdom’s castle. So if she left, she’d have to come back eventually, if the knights didn’t find her first. 

Just a day. That was all she needed, just a day to see what things were like when you weren’t constantly being pampered and worshipped just for being royal. And if she ended up enjoying it that much, maybe she’d stay a little longer. Maybe everything would be easier if she just… disappeared, disguised herself until she had aged enough that she wouldn’t be recognized. Just leave, start a new life…

But no, she couldn’t do that to her parents, to her people. She was the only heir to the throne, and it was highly unlikely that the king and queen would be able to have any more children. So she had to stay, she had no choice. No choice but to take over the crown, and lead her kingdom. But she’d still take just that one day away from all of it.

So then was the matter of actually leaving. For how smart Johanna had always thought she was, she found it remarkably difficult to come up with a plan for this. But she was running out of time. If she didn’t leave soon, the sun would rise before she could get out of the castle. And trying to escape in daylight was hopeless.

So there she was, attempting to escape the castle without any sort of plan for how she’d accomplish it. And now that she was thinking of it, Johanna had no idea what to do once she was in town either. Well, she’d cross that bridge when she got to it. 

She closed the door to her room, as quietly as she could. And then she turned around, started walking down the hallway, and almost immediately bumped right into someone. 

Johanna swore. Already? Really? She turned her eyes up to glare at whoever it was. But as soon as she got a look at their face, she froze.


	2. Escape Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The two princesses talk and get through the first part of their escape.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Making my grand return to give you some desperately needed simhanna content

When Johanna looked up at the person she had ran into, she had been expecting a guard, ready to escort her back to bed and make sure to tell her parents about the incident. But instead, it was a devastatingly beautiful princess.

The first thing that stood out about her was her eyes. Her iris’ were dark, pools of ink that blended in with her pupils. Her skin was a deep, healthy-looking brown, almost the same color as the leather of her boots. She wore a loose, dark red dress that stopped just above those boots, and a headscarf of a similar color. Underneath that dress were thick, strong arms and equally muscular legs. Johanna felt her face reddening.

Johanna knew her, they had definitely met before. But she couldn’t remember her name… it was short, and it started with an ‘s’, she was sure of that. What could it be…?

“Princess Johanna?” The other said, snapping Johanna out of her thoughts. She’d figure out her name later, there were more important things she needed to ask for at the moment.

“Please don’t tell anyone I was trying to escape!” Johanna said quickly, panic all too clear in her voice. 

At that, the other princess’ eyes widened for a second, but then she just snorted and said, “I wouldn’t even have guessed that’s what you were up to if you hadn’t said anything.” Johanna swore under her breath. Now she was even more flustered, not just because of the other’s striking appearance and that enticing smirk…

“It’s okay! You’re okay!” The other said quickly, catching on to Johanna’s alarm. “I won’t tell.” Johanna breathed a sigh of relief at that. “Actually, I’ve gotten sick of this palace, too. I can help you.” she offered. 

“Oh. Oh?” Johanna said, surprised. Then she narrowed her eyes. “And what makes you think I needed your help?” 

The other princess laughed again, a pleasant sound that made Johanna’s face heat up a little. “The first step you took out of your room, and you immediately got caught. It seems to me like you wouldn’t get very far if I just left you to get out on your own.” 

Johanna scowled, but she couldn’t find an argument against that logic. She was right, she didn’t have any sort of plan and had barely thought this through. She didn’t know exactly how she would help her, but maybe whatever plan she had was better than Johanna’s lack of one. Johanna decided to go along with it, at least for now.

“Fine,” Johanna said, looking the other up and down once again. “I’ll accept your help Princess…” Shit. That’s right, she had forgotten her name.

“Simmaa. Princess Simmaa Aldajah of the Crown and Cleaver. Just call me Sim” The other princess, Sim, said, once she realized why Johanna had paused. 

“Thank you, Princess Sim,” Johanna said.

“Really, just Sim is fine,” She said. “My title doesn’t really mean anything, to be honest.”

“Alright,” Johanna said. “Well in that case, you can just call me Johanna.” Her parents wouldn’t approve of that. They didn’t have to know. “So how exactly do you plan on helping me get out of this place?”

“I’ve got my ways,” Sim said. “Just follow me and do as I say, this isn’t my first escape.” Johanna was still a little suspicious, but it wasn’t like she had many other options. Following Sim was her best bet. 

Sim turned and started moving in the opposite direction before Johanna had a chance to process it. Sim walked fast, but Johanna caught up before she could lose sight of her.  
Sim was just… walking down the hall. She wasn’t even trying to hide. They even passed a few people on the way, and they did little more than clear the way for them. How Sim had this effect on everyone, Johanna had no idea. Until she got a look at her face.

She seemed more confident than before. Her head was held high, her shoulders back, and footsteps sure. And the way she looked at the people they passed… it wasn’t exactly a glare but it gave Johanna the message ‘this is exactly what I’m meant to be doing. Don’t interfere.’

For a split second, Johanna was stunned. She had thought Sim was beautiful from the moment they had run into each other in that empty hall, but this was something else. Johanna felt her face heat up for what seemed like the thousandth time in the past twenty minutes.

But once she was over that, she realized what Sim’s plan was. Just look confident and they’ll ignore you, huh? Alright, I can do that. So Johanna tried her best to put on the same expression that Sim wore. 

And it worked. People just… got out of their way, no questions asked. How had Johanna not tried this before? It seemed to all be working out just fine, but then Sim suddenly held out her arm to stop her, just before they reached the front door. 

Johanna gave her a questioning look, but did as Sim asked. Sim moved her arm away from where it was in front of Johanna and pointed at the pair of guards standing just outside the door. Those two won’t let us leave no matter how confident we seem, was what the look Sim gave her said. We’ll need another way out.

Sim’s dark eyes scanned over the wall separating the two from the gardens outside. Her eyes locked on a window to their left, low to the ground and a good distance away from the guards. Perfect.

She nudged Johanna and directed her towards the window. Johanna quickly nodded and followed, doing her best to keep quiet. It was a feat, getting through that too-small window while wearing too-big skirts and not being heard by the guards. Or maybe the guards were just idiots. Knowing the guards Johanna had dealt with her whole life, it was probably the latter.

Johanna just now registered the feeling of Sim’s hand gripping her wrist. How long had it been there? Maybe she’d grabbed it as Johanna stumbled through the window, or had it been there before that? Either way, it hadn’t been noticed until just now. Johanna immediately felt her cheeks flush, but she didn’t pull her hand away. Johanna was more confident than that, and she believes that when a beautiful woman is holding your hand, you take that opportunity. 

Snapping back to the issues at hand, Johanna took a quick look around the gardens between them and the outer gates. There were quite a lot more guards roaming around this area than there had been in the castle halls. 

This might be where the real hard part began for them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Idk I wrote the first half of this and then ignored it for a month before writing the second half. Is it any good? I don't know. Am I posting it anyway? Of course


End file.
